Abstract Essay, in its fifth season, features Nathaniel A. Turner as a guest, offering a reflective and forward-thinking conversation on how parents and adults can backward-design the life they have always imagined. The episode explores the power of beginning with a clear vision of one’s future—personally, professionally, and within the family—and then intentionally aligning present-day decisions, habits, and values to support that long-term goal. Through thoughtful dialogue, the discussion highlights how clarity, purpose, and consistency can replace overwhelm and uncertainty, especially in the complex realities of modern parenting and adulthood. By blending philosophy with practical insight, Abstract Essay invites listeners to reconsider how they plan their lives, emphasizing intentional design, legacy-building, and the quiet discipline required to create a meaningful and fulfilling future.

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Sarah Johnson

Founder and Strategic Advisor

While at TIAA, we were tasked with redesigning the entire website, which consisted of many complex ideas and transactions. We used design thinking as part of our process, and for content strategy, this included listening in on customer support calls, interviewing users, usability studies, and other customer research in the hopes of raising customer task completion rates. They were extremely low.

We learned that regardless of how savvy people were with using the computer, they were not comfortable dealing with their finances in a digital environment. They needed more guidance, reassurance, and acknowledgement when they successfully completed a task. They also needed education.

As a result, we simplified the visual elements on each page and broke down tasks into one step at a time per page. In addition to asking for information, we told them why we needed that information. We reassured them when they were correct, and provided video education, checklists, chat, email, and calls to the support center. One thing that helped completion rates was letting people know what they were going to need up front in order to complete their task, things such as their partner's social security number, and other paperwork. Getting into a task and not having what they needed was causing a lot of drop off as we could see from the metrics.

Using metrics to measure content, we were able to improve the completion rates monthly so that they went from 32% - 78% in the first few months. Calls to the support center were reduced such that the company saved a fortune in time wasted due to a poorly designed website.

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Jasmine Bootle

Burning Down the labels and stigma around addiction. Providing free support and resources to those who need it. One size does not fit all and I can help guide you to freedom in sobriety.

I was bullied very intensely in my childhood which led me to develop mental health issues. Then my Mom left us with pretty much nothing. I had no coping skills so I began to drink. It was out of control and took me to some dangerous and dark places for 10 years. I got sober after my daughter was born. Sadly my Dad passed away and my family left me with nothing. Being an only child I wasn't even able to speak at his funeral and was kicked out of the family. In this chaos I got addicted to opiates for the next 2 years until my husband overdosed and almost died 3 times from bad fentanyl. So I went to a method clinic and got sober. I have been sober for 5 years. I initially started a resources program for the homeless. Then I started a successful podcast called Everyone is Addicted on YouTube and Roger's Television. This was to bring understanding awareness and give people a voice. I noticed that medical professionals were only offering the old ways to find sobriety and not showing people that there are far more choices so I started Burn it Down a non-profit organization that offers resources to find different proven ways to find sobriety. One size doesn't fit all and I want to help people find a way that works for them.

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Courtney Lemarco

High-impact producer, multi-sector CEO, and cultural innovator driving global entertainment, brand expansion, and next-gen media strategies.

Courtney LeMarco is a multi-sector CEO, executive producer, and deal architect operating at the intersection of entertainment, media, and global brand strategy. With a portfolio spanning television, film, talent management, fashion, real estate, and consumer brands, he has built a career on scaling creative IP into sustainable, high-value enterprises. As the Executive Producer and Showrunner of the Emmy-nominated series Hoarders on A&E, he has delivered industry-defining content while driving operational excellence behind the scenes. His track record includes partnerships with major global brands and launching next-generation platforms that shape culture and commerce. LeMarco’s operating thesis is simple: innovate aggressively, execute decisively, and build companies that outperform the market.

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Dr. Widian Jubair

Board-Certified Internist & Founder of Celestique MD — Bridging Traditional Medicine and Holistic Wellness for a Healthier, Longer Life

I’m Dr. Widian Jubair, a board-certified internist and founder of Celestique MD in Centennial, Colorado. My journey began with a deep curiosity about how the body heals — taking me from medical school overseas to advanced research in immunology, molecular biology, and internal medicine in the United States. After years of practicing traditional medicine, I realized that many patients needed more than quick visits and prescriptions — they needed personalized, preventive, and holistic care. That realization inspired me to create Celestique MD, a space where science meets self-care.

Through my practice, I help patients improve their health span, balance their hormones, manage weight, and prevent disease through evidence-based lifestyle and longevity medicine. My approach bridges the best of traditional and integrative care to help people thrive — not just survive. I love discussing topics like preventive health, women’s wellness, longevity, and the future of patient-centered primary care.

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Angel Howard

Certified Somatic Therapist | Executive Coach | Retreat Host | Inspirational Speaker

Angel Howard is the founder of WildHeart Expressive, the host of Upshift podcast, and the author of Issues in Your Tissues. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a master’s in business and finance, and a certificate in somatic movement therapy. She has held executive positions at Coca-Cola, Legacy Housing Foundation, Tennessee Clean Water Network, and Fort Loudoun Lake Association. Now, as a somatic movement therapist, executive coach, and speaker, she empowers leaders to connect with their inner voice, creativity, confidence, and body.

I’ve lived many lives—professional dancer, corporate executive, retreat leader, and somatic therapist—but the thread through all of them has been the body. From performing on stage to leading teams at companies like Coca-Cola, I learned early on that the body carries our story, even when we don’t have words for it.

After earning degrees in psychology and international business, I spent years climbing the ladder. But I also saw firsthand how success doesn’t always equal fulfillment. That’s what led me to study somatic therapy in 1999 and eventually create WildHeart Expressive, a movement-based healing method that helps people release trauma, build confidence, and lead more authentic lives.

I speak the language of leadership and lived experience. I’ve walked through burnout, personal loss, reinvention—and I’ve helped others do the same. My story is one of returning to the body, reclaiming personal power, and turning inward for the answers we usually seek outside ourselves.

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David Auge

Environmental Philosopher

David Auge has spent decades searching for the most successful way to explain sustainability to others. Now with the help of two diverse insect communities and the contrast they provide at this critical juncture of human civilization he’s done it. In this book, he not only explains how to grasp these competing approaches posed by honeybees and desert locusts, but also why these competing communities achieve the profoundly important goal of sustainability.

In Man’s Search for Sustainability, David Auge teaches you how sustainable societies:

• Manage stress through either order (honeybees) or growth (desert locusts).

• Allocate work through either discipline (honeybees) or opportunity (desert locusts).

• Make decisions through either debate (honeybees) or chaos (desert locusts).

• Communicate through messages (honeybees) or examples (desert locusts).

• Maintain balance and tension through group effort (honeybees) or individual effort (desert locusts).

• And through this study, prompts all to ask the very important question of human societies approach to sustainability.

Man’s Search for Sustainability is structured to question current approaches, increase understanding, and teach you to think from a place of familiarity by presenting the sustainability extremes of doing what scares you. After reading this book you'll learn to balance future decisions in new and exciting ways.

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Bart Merrell

Identify your ideal side hustle, create financial security by monetizing what you already know or do.

Hi, I’m Bart Merrell—International Entrepreneur, Author, and Presenter of Monetize Your Mindset.

As a serial entrepreneur, I’ve been turning opportunities into successful ventures since before I could legally drive (though, admittedly, I did crash my parents' car when I was eight). I’m also the creator of two YouTube channels: Beyond Limbs: Amputee Answers & Options and Side Hustle Samurai.

Fun fact: I helped take the first commercial bungee jump to Japan. I’m still not sure if that’s something to brag about, especially since I jumped off the tower while holding the cord with my hands!

My mission is simple: I want to help you create financial security by monetizing what you already know. Life’s curveballs are inevitable—but when you’ve built a solid financial foundation, you’ll be ready to handle them.

In my book, Monetize Your Mindset, I teach that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary success when they learn to see and act on the opportunities that surround them. Whether you’re building your first side hustle or expanding an existing business, the key to sustainable financial freedom is right in your mindset.

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Anna Quigley

Awakening Soul-Led Living After 40

Intuition is the most powerful tool in my personal toolbox.

It has guided me into (and out of) careers, relationships, major health challenges, and even helps me navigate daily life with more ease. When I listen to my Intuition, life flows—even during periods of uncertainty or chaos. Over time, I’ve learned to recognize the signals—physical, emotional, mental—and trust them. I’ve also learned how to shift from the rational mind into intuitive alignment.

Learning to trust my inner guidance gave me something powerful: agency—the ability to change my own path. Now, I help other women do the same.

With passion, humor, personal stories, and practical tools, I teach the science behind Intuition—how we receive it, how to recognize it, and how to use it. I blend neuroscience, quantum mind-body techniques, and inner wisdom to guide women into their next chapter with clarity, confidence, and the courage to take action.

I also share how to re-engineer this process to more easily manifest the life they dream of.

With 30+ years of study and practice, I’m now sharing everything I know to support midlife women and beyond in discovering what’s next—because one thing I know for sure: It’s never too late.

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Scott Maderer

Guiding Christians to master their time, their talent, and their treasures so they can live out their calling.

I am an expert in helping folks transition from "working" to living their calling. Whatever that looks like for them. I speak on helping people identify their calling, get out of their own way so they can really live it out, and how they can deal with their their time, their talent, or their treasures to really live their dream. I talk on productivity and time management, leadership and communication, and business and personal money and finances. I am certified in DISC personality/communication tools and have been a working coach since 2011 doing coaching full time since 2017. I specialize in mindset and behavior change more than the tools to use.

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